Report: Colts fire three more assistant coaches

Last night, Colts owner Jim Irsay said that he kept general manager Ryan Grigson and head coach Chuck Pagano around for the sake of continuity.  It was expected that other changes would be coming to the coaching staff, however, and that's exactly what has happened.  Earlier, NFL Media's Ian Rapoport reported that the Colts have fired defensive coordinator Greg Manusky, and now Rapoport notes that the Colts have also fired tight ends coach Alfredo Roberts, secondary coach Mike Gillhamer and safeties coach Roy Anderson.

Roberts joined the Colts in 2012 as tight ends coach after having served in that same role previously for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2009-2011), Cleveland Browns (2007-2008), and Jacksonville Jaguars (2003-2006).  He played five seasons in the NFL, winning two Super Bowls as a player with the Cowboys.  He also won two national championships as a player at Miami in college, playing with fellow tight end Rob Chudzinski (now the Colts' offensive coordinator).  Roberts spent his four seasons with the Colts coaching tight ends such as Coby Fleener and Dwayne Allen, both of whom were drafted the year Roberts arrived.  2014 was a crowning achievement for the position, as the Colts' tight ends combined to catch 18 touchdowns (a team record for the position) and Fleener and Allen both caught at least eight touchdowns, the first tight end duo in league history to do that.  This year, however, the tight ends were drastically underutilized and it was a rough season all around at the position.

Gillhamer was also hired in 2012 as the team's secondary coach.  He has 37 years of coaching experience in a wide variety of roles, including both NFL and college.  Prior to coming to Indianapolis, he was the secondary coach at the University of Illinois (2011), while before that he was the safeties coach (2004-2008) and then secondary coach (2009-2010) of the Carolina Panthers.  During Gillhamer's tenure with the team, he saw defensive backs such as Vontae Davis, Darius Butler, Mike Adams, and Dwight Lowery all have career seasons.  In 2014, both Davis and Adams made the Pro Bowl for the first time in their careers in helping to lead one of the top secondaries in the league, though it wasn't helped out much by the pass rush.

Anderson also joined the team in 2012 as the safeties coach.  Before that, he spent several seasons with the Baltimore Ravens in a number of roles: player personnel assistant (2005-2007), coaching assistant (2008), defensive assistant (2009), and defensive assistant/secondary coach (2010-2011).  He followed Chuck Pagano to Indianapolis in 2012, being brought on staff as the safeties coach.  He coached a number of successful players at the position, such as Antoine Bethea, Mike Adams, and Dwight Lowery.  As already noted, in 2014 Adams had a career year and made his first Pro Bowl appearance.